One of the most significant challenges in political science today is understanding how authoritarian regimes maintain their power. Venezuela is a striking example: Nicolás Maduro’s government has persisted, despite a historic economic collapse, massive protests, and intense international pressure. The volume Authoritarian Consolidation in Times of Crisis: Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro, edited by John Polga-Hecimovich and Raúl Sánchez-Urribarri (2025), examines this puzzle with an innovative approach. It extends beyond the usual focus on democratic erosion, instead turning to the consolidation of authoritarian rule. This term refers to the process by which regimes consolidate their power bases to ensure survival. The central thesis is that Venezuela shows how, even during protracted crises, authoritarian governments not only survive but also expand and adapt their control mechanisms. As such, the book is an essential contribution to the study of comparative authoritarianism. It offers insights that go beyond Venezuela, enriching debates on the evolution of autocracies and power dynamics in authoritarian regimes.

The volume is organized into two thematic sections: domestic factors and international dynamics. The first part (Chapters 2–9) examines the inner pillars that support Madurismo. It discusses strategies such as coup-proofing to ensure military loyalty and utilizing elections to legitimize power. It analyzes the rise of authoritarian capitalism, which promotes the co-optation of political actors. It covers how the judiciary is manipulated to serve executive interests. Other chapters explore how information is controlled and review criminal governance, which means criminal groups, in coordination with the state, regulate community life to manage territories and suppress social threats.

The second part (Chapters 10–15) discusses the international aspects of Maduro’s regime. Contributors analyze Venezuela’s alliances with authoritarian states like Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and Cuba. These countries provide financial, technological, and diplomatic support. The book also reviews the use of political dialogue as a stalling tactic and explores how mass migration acts as a safety valve. The Venezuelan diaspora is analyzed as serving a dual function: undermining internal opposition while simultaneously generating international visibility. A unified theoretical framework binds the book. This framework, introduced early and revisited in the conclusion, encompasses four levels of authoritarian consolidation: avoiding breakdown, avoiding liberalization, completing authoritarianism, and deepening authoritarianism. Together, the chapters provide a comprehensive review of Venezuela’s experience.

The book’s first major strength is its clear conceptual foundation. Polga-Hecimovich and Sánchez Urribarri distinguish authoritarian consolidation from similar terms, such as democratic erosion or backsliding. Their four-level framework serves as a helpful analytical tool for other Latin American contexts, such as El Salvador. This framework enables the precise measurement of regime entrenchment and the comparison of authoritarian resilience. The second strength is the book’s thoroughness. Rather than focusing on a single area, it examines multiple mechanisms of control, including military, institutional, economic, judicial, communicational, and transnational. This comprehensive approach offers a detailed portrayal of the structural complexity of Venezuelan authoritarianism.

A third strength is the range of perspectives. The volume includes scholars from diverse backgrounds. Several are Venezuelan academics who continue to work within the country. Their insights are grounded and nuanced qualities often missing from U.S. and European debates. The book also seeks comparison. By analyzing matters such as coup-proofing, autocratic collaboration, or migration as control tools, it offers valuable lessons for other regimes. The distinction it draws between consolidation and regime stability is especially valuable. Here, regime stability means a fragile system that relies on repression, clientelism, and alternative revenue sources.

As with any edited volume, heterogeneity across chapters represents a potential limitation. The thematic breadth can produce uneven emphasis on specific mechanisms of control. A second point of debate concerns the relative weight of explanatory factors. While the book clearly identifies the mechanisms that operate and how they function, questions remain regarding which factors are decisive: is military loyalty paramount, or does international cooperation among autocracies ultimately tip the balance? Is the core of Maduro’s endurance found in domestic institutional design or in transnational linkages? Such issues invite further empirical investigation.

A third limitation concerns the absence of a more qualitative, anthropological dimension that could shed light on how Madurismo continues to command, albeit minimally, grassroots support among vulnerable sectors. This perspective would enable a deeper understanding not only of coercion, co-optation, and clientelism, but also of everyday practices, symbolic repertoires, and political identities that sustain residual legitimacy in crisis contexts. Finally, the dynamic nature of Venezuelan politics inevitably constrains the book’s temporal scope: while it does not cover post-electoral events of 2024, its framework remains highly applicable for interpreting them.

In conclusion, Authoritarian Consolidation in Times of Crisis brings conceptual innovation, thorough coverage, and strong empirical work. It serves as a key reference for students of Venezuelan politics and for those studying the consolidation of authoritarian regimes in general. By introducing concepts such as consolidation, resilience, authoritarian hegemony, and transnational autocratization, the book enriches the comparative politics vocabulary. It shows that autocracies employ various mechanisms – military, institutional, economic, communicational, and transnational – to adapt to crises. These strategies help them survive without democratic legitimacy and deepen their control in the twenty-first century.